ICE failure left thousands without 3G internet

November 16th, 2012 (InsideCostaRica.com) Many ICE clients were unable to connect to their cellular Internet service yesterday, due to a failure in a node of the 3G network.

The interruption in service occurred at 6:40 am, and continued until 8:40 am.

The problem was located in one of the nodes of the mobile network, located in Alajuela, according to Elbert Duran, spokesperson for ICE.

The official said that regular phone calls and text messages were not affected.

The Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE), is Costa Rica’s largest mobile provider with close to 3.8 million active connections.

Towards the end of August, the company faced a massive breakdown of landline Internet service, which left many with no service for several hours. The failure on that occasion also affected the cellular mobile system.

As compensation to clients that were affected during the August outage, ICE was forced to offer a total of 758 million colons (about $1.5 million dollars).

By Law, when a breakdown in service occurs, and the fault lies with the provider, the company must reimburse those who were affected.

On Tuesday, Movistar users were also left with no connection due to a communication error with ICE’s Kolbi network when a fiber optic cable, which allows communication between both systems, was cut. Movistar reported the issue to authorities, suspecting a criminal act of vandalism.